Dr. Robert A. Kornfeld says it might not be your fault if one of your clients gets a foot fungus. In an article on AOL Healthy Living titled “Is Your Salon Causing Toenail Fungus,” Dr. Kornfeld, founder of the Institute for Integrative Podiatric Medicine, posits that toenail fungus in actually the result of an internal fungal infection.

Dr. Kornfeld explains that in order for a fungus to take hold, two conditions have to be present: the nail bed has to have been cut and the client would have to have a compromised immune system that’s unable to fight off the infection. “Since it is more common than not to see multiple toenails infected with fungus, can we blame your nail salon for causing injury to multiple toenails?” he asks.

Instead he believes that fungal infections of the nails are actually a symptom of an internal infection. “One of the ways the human body deals with these organisms is to discharge them. Since your skin (and skin structures) is the largest organ of elimination, it is not surprising that skin and toenails are frequently affected,” he writes. Ultimately Dr. Kornfeld concludes that toenail infections are the result of an excess of fungi in the gastrointestinal tract that leads to eventual discharge into toenails.